On Monday, Nov. 12, hotelier André Balazs and GQ magazine co-hosted a party at STK, a nightclub on Little West 12th Street in the Meatpacking District, celebrating the publication of clothing designer Tommy Hilfiger and ad man George Lois’ new book, Iconic America: A Roller-Coaster Ride Through the Eye-Popping Panorama of American Pop Culture (Universe). “For 20 years now, I’ve been inspired by American icons based upon pop culture—music, art, entertainment, Old Hollywood, Warhol, Elvis, Marilyn, James Dean,” said Mr. Hilfiger, 56, wearing a black sweater under a puffy black vest. “And all of this has been swirling around my mind for longer than that, but it’s influenced my business for 20 years.”

How’s business, anyway? Mr. Hilfiger said there are plans to open a store in Rome. “We’re growing the brand up, becoming more refined, sophisticated,” he said, blond girlfriend Dee Ocleppo smiling at his side.

Then the Transom ran smack into Mr. Hilfiger’s daughter, reality TV star Ally. “I love knowing strange and obscure facts about strange and obscure things, and that’s what this book contains,” she said, quite seriously, of her father’s foray into publishing.

Not everyone was so gung-ho. Actor Bill Pullman, for example, currently starring in Edward Albee’s Peter and Jerry on Broadway, had some thoughts about all those crazy logo rugby shirts. “Corporate entities are now kind of accepted in a way that’s made them almost invisible to our sense of objective awareness that they’re corporate entities,” he said. “So people wear shirts with brands on them, and they’re thinking of it as fashion. They’re not thinking of it as promoting a consumer item. So it’s a very tricky time.”